With nine seconds left in the game, Kedren Johnson made a layup to give the Tigers a 60-59 lead and seemingly a victory against the Temple Owls despite forward Austin Nichols getting injured earlier in the second half.
Temple forward Josh Brown had other ideas as leaky transition defense by Memphis allowed Brown an open baseline jumper which he made and scored his only points of the game on, and gave Temple (17-7, 8-3 American Athletic Conference) a 61-60 victory over Memphis (14-9, 6-4 AAC) on Saturday afternoon at FedExForum.
Coach Josh Pastner in his postgame press conference, praised Temple and said sometimes plays like that just happen.
“You have to give Temple credit,” Pastner said. “Josh Brown hit a shot. We had the lead. You can't practice that scenario. You practice transition defense and that stuff that was just in the flow of the game. He hit his only shot of the game off the backboard. That's what happens. I knew once it left his hands it looked good.”
However, that may not have been the worst part of the Tigers’ loss today, with 7:13 left in the game Nichols went down hard after a rebound and had to be carried off of the court. Pastner said Nichols has a sprained ankle and will be out for at least two weeks, meaning Nichols will miss the Tigers’ next four games.
Nichols had an incredible stat line in 30 minutes with 17 points, eight rebounds, six blocks, and three assists. Pastner did not sugarcoat his loss after the game.
“There's no question if Austin (Nichols) is in the game that we win,” Pastner said. “Guys know Austin (Nichols) is our best player and when he goes down with six minutes to go in the game, that's a punch in the gut to this team. They love Austin (Nichols). We have great guys on our team. It was a punch in the gut when he went down. It didn't look good either. Unfortunately, we couldn't pull out the win there. I was glad the guys were able to rally. It's not easy to rally when your anchor is not there. I'm proud of the guys.”
In the first half, there was no thought of a possible Tigers rally because Memphis was in complete control of the game leading by as much 16, before a late Temple run cut it to 38-28 at halftime.
Memphis shot 46 percent in the first half and Nichols led the Tigers with 15 first-half points with Johnson also adding in seven points and two assists. The third-year guard finished the game with 11 points and three assists.
Another key contributor in the first half was forward Shaq Goodwin. He broke his career-high in rebounds in the first half (12) with 17 and outrebounded the Owls by himself 17 to 14.
Goodwin continued to dominate the glass in the second half and finished the game with 23 rebounds becoming the first Tiger since Joey Dorsey in 2008 to have a 20-rebound game. He also had eight points and three assists.
He said after the game his 23 rebounds didn’t matter much because of the Tigers loss.
"I guess the ball just found me,” Goodwin said. “It was a magnet today but none of that matters in a loss. We just have to get ready for East Carolina on Tuesday."
Temple was able to stay in the game despite the performances of Goodwin and Nichols, because they turned the Tigers over 15 times and went to the free throw line 32 times going 20-32 (63 percent) compared to Memphis only went to the line 18 times going 12-18 (67 percent). Guard Jesse Morgan for the Owls scored 10 of his 12 points from the line going a perfect 10-10.
This was key because Memphis held Temple to just 33 percent from the field for the game and 21 percent from three but those extra possessions cost the Tigers in the end.
Memphis will hope to bounce back against the East Carolina Pirates on Tuesday at 6 p.m. from Minges Coliseum in Greenville, North Carolina. ESPNU plans to show the game.
